Office appliance



1/ MAY \GWF D. G. McCARTY.

OFFICE APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10. I920.

1,367,983. Patented Feb. 8,1921.

l l 5.! i 5 I 1a 2 #3 I t Witness. I mien or, [K paiirson- E DWIGHT G. MGCABTY, OF EMMETSBURG, IOWA.

OFFICE APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 8, 1921.

Application filed .Tune 10, 1920. Serial 1T0. 388,016.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DWIGHT G. MoCaR'rY, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Emmetsburg, in the county of Palo Alto and State of Iowa, have invented a certain new and useful Office Appliance, of which the following is a specificatlon.

The object of my invention is to prov de an ofiice appliance of simple and inexpensive construction, particularly adapted for use as a tickler device.

More particularly it is my ob ect to provide such an appliance including a base or support, an inclined supportlng member mounted thereon, a yielding fastening device mounted on said inclined member, a container, and means for holding a memorandum slip adjacent to the forward portion of said container.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the ob ects contemplated are attained, as herelnafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claims, and illustrated in the acompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 shows a side elevation of an office appliance embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 shows a front view of the same.

Fig. 3 shows a vertical, sectional view, partly broken away taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 shows a de ail sectional view, taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 5 shows a plan view of the tickler slip used in connection with my ofiice appliance.

In the form of my device disclosed in the drawings, I have used the reference numeral 10 to indicate generally a flat base. Mounted thereon, near the rear portion thereof, is a rearwardly and upwardly extending supporting member 11, which may be mounted between a block 12 behind the member 11, and a smaller member 13 in front of said member, for giving it rigidity.

Mounted on the base 10 and spaced forwardly from the support 11,-is a receptacle having a bottom 1&, rearwardly inclined rear and front walls 15 and 16, end walls 17, and a vertical front wall 18 extending from the bottom 14 to the upper end of the front wall 16. Hinged to the receptacle, in the manner which will be hereinafter described, is a cover member having the inclined front and rear wall members 19 and 20, the side members 21, and the top member 22.

Fixed to the side walls 21 of the cover member, on the outside thereof, are downwardly extending arms 23. Secured to each side member 17 of the receptacle is a strip 24 arranged parallel with the wall 15, as shown, for instance, in Fig. 1. The strip 2 1 has a laterally and forwardly inclined portion 25, having at its forward edge a forwardly inclined'portion 26 parallel with the side wall.

In the portion 26 of each hinge element now under consideration, is an elongated slot 27. Connected with each arm 23 is a double-headed pin or the like 28, extended through the slot 27 of the adjacent hinge element. By means of the construction just shown it will be noted that the cover member may be swung upwardly and rearwardly and then slid downwardly behind the receptacle, where it will be out of the way while the device is in use.

Secured to the member 11, as at 29, are spring clips 30 extending upwardly and having at their upper ends lateral extensions 31 projecting laterally beyond the member 11 to position where they may be conveniently grasped for pulling the spring clips away from the member 11 and insert-- ing memorandum slips 32 between the spring clips and the member 11.

Connected with the front portion of the device, and adapted to coact with the front wall 16, is a spring clip 33 for holding memorandum slips 34 adjacent to the front surface ofthe wall 16. The receptacle may be used for holding suitably indexed separator cards 35, and for holding memorandum slips of various kinds.

Arranged adjacent to the lower ends of the clips 30 are transverse strips 36, against which the lower edges of the memorandum slips supported on the member 11 may rest.

11 office appliance of this kind may be put to a great variety of uses, and I will simply suggest possible uses for explaining the possible functions and utility of the device.

Assuming that the device is completed and assembled as shown, it then becomes a combined tickler and despatch board, suitable for the desk in any ofiice. Memorandum or tickler slips 32, such for instance as that shown in Fig. 5 are used for memoranda of any matter that needs to be given attenimmediateattention are sorted in the order of their importance, and are then mounted on the member 11, by slipping them under the upper spring clip 30,.the most important and urgent being ontop and plainly visible. Slips referring to' matters not so pressing are sorted inthe .order oftheir importance with the ones needing earliest attention on top and these are slipped under the lower clip 30, on the member 11. A slip referring to the appointments for the day may be placed against the forward surface of the Wall 16,and held in positionbythe clip 33.

delay, uncertainty or confusion.

It will be seen that the device isvso arranged thatthe appointment slip andthe top slips of those mounted on the member 11, are plainly visible. lVhen thus arranged on the despatch board, they constitutethe schedule for the days work. This facilitates the orderly planning of the days work, and when once planned, the 'worlr can be despatched'according to the schedule without The slips may be removed from the clips and re-arranged at any time, and a new schedule made to fitchanging conditions, or new matters that may comeup.v The current task in hand is always in plain sight before the eye, flagging the attention, and expediting the prompt despatch of the business as planned.

'The device as a whole is designed in a novel and convenient manner in order to give the maximum results in planning and sch eduling the days workwith the minimum time and effort of a rout-inenature. The device is so arranged that-an efficient schedule can headvantages of such anappliance may be readily seen from the foregoing description, and it will be obvious that the advantages may be extended by using the appliance, for a great varietyof purposes.

7 'Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of the device without departingfromthereal spirit and purpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by the claims hereinafter written, any such 'modifications as may be reasonably includedwithin their scope.

I claim as my invention: 1. In. an oflice appliance, a member thereon near the rear part thereof, a holding device on said inclined-member, a receptacle mounted on said base, forwardly from said inclined. member, anda cover hingedly and slidablymounted on said re-i ceptacle and adapted to be moved toposition behind the receptacle.

2. In an office appliance, a base, an inclined member thereon near the rear part thereof, a-hol'ding device on said inclined member, a receptacle mountedon said base, forwardly from said inclined member, and a cover hingedlyand slidably mounted on said receptacle and adapted to be moved to position base, an inclined; V

behind the rece Jtacle. said rece'itacle having inclined front and rear walls.

'3. In an office appliance, a base, an inclined member thereon near the rear part thereof, a holding device on said inclined me ber, a receptacle mounted on-said base, forwardly from said inclined'member, a cover hingedly and slidably mounted on said receptacle and I adapted-to be moved to position behind the receptacle, said receptacle having inclined front'and rear'walls, and a device for holding memorandum'slips on the front wall.

.4. In anofficeappliance, a base, a member mounted thereon near the rear part thereof,

inclined upwardly and rearwardly, a holding device on saidmember, a receptacle-on said i base, spaced forwardly from said inclined member, a cover member for saidreceptacle, and means for mounting said cover member ipivota-lly'and slidably on the receptacle, for permitting the cover to be raised and slid downwardly behind said receptacle.

Des Moines, Iowa, May 18, 1920.

DWIGHT o. rrecanrr. 

